Polyvinyl chloride is used for a long time for manufacturing floor coatings. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a thermoplastical material that is hard and crisp without adding auxiliary materials. However, the mechanical properties of PVC can be adjusted in a wide range by adding suitable auxiliary materials, such as plasticiser, filling materials, coloring materials, stabilizers, etc. For this reason, the term “PVC” is not to be understood herein as pure polyvinyl chloride, but PVC with the commonly added and for the practical usage necessary auxiliary materials.
A typical example from the prior art is described in document DE 10 2006 058 655 A1. In this document, a floor panel in form of a multilayered, rectangular laminate with a carrier layer of the soft polyvinyl chloride and a décor paper layer, arranged on the polyvinyl chloride layer, is disclosed. Applying a décor paper web is technically sophisticated and is linked to enormous costs.
From DE 10 2006 029 963 A1 a floor coating made of polyvinyl chloride is known that is coated with a durable lacquer layer in order to improve the durability of the PVC floor coating. The lacquer layer is based on an acrylic resin and shall be cured by radiation. The essence of this document relies on adding of electrical conductive substances to the acrylic resin in order to provide the floor coating with anti-static and/or electrical conductive properties.
WO 2008/061791 A1 of the same applicant constitutes a further development of a lacquer coating. The content of this document is hereby completely incorporated by reference. The essence of the improvement of the document relies on wet-in-wet applying two different liquid polymer layers onto the surface of a panel, such that a partial mixing of the coating means takes place. Both wet-in-wet applied layers are then jointly cured, wherein the resulting cured coating provides a hardness gradient based on the partial mixing, wherein the hardness of the coating decreases with increasing depth seen from the surface of the resulting coating.
In light of these known PVC coatings, the objective of the present invention is to provide a panel, in particular a wall, ceiling or a floor panel that comprises a carrier layer made of a plastic material, wherein such a panel shall be manufactured cheaper and in a more simple way as for example known from DE 10 2000 6058 655 A1. A further objective is to provide such a panel that provides an improved durability and a qualitative particularly valuable decorative pattern.
This and further problems that are mentioned during the reading of the present description or that will be recognized by the person skilled in the art are solved by a panel according to claim 1 and by a method for manufacturing it according to claim 19.